Lets start things off be defining the word ‘redundancy‘. Here is what the dictionary has to say:

re-dun-dan-cy [ri-duhn-duhn-see], noun

1. the state of being redundant

Hmmm…

Interesting that this is the first thing that comes up. Let’s see what else our great knowledge has to say:

2. superfluous repetition or overlapping

Ok, that seems better. It explains a little more.

So why am I talking about redundancy and being redundant? Recently, I have realized that we are being told the same thing over and over and over again. This comes in different forms, but the message behind it is very similar each time. This is especially true when it comes to our health. The mainstream media and professionals all over the world, as well as our general knowledge, are telling us that we need to be making changes in the way we are living our lives. How many different ways can people tell us what we should be doing? How many creative ways can we pass on basically the same information? There are problems when we hear the same thing over and over again. The main one is that we begin to ignore the message and just end up sticking with our current habits.

We all know that the outdoors are good for our health and keeping active has a lot of positive benefits including helping with mental clarity. Those three articles basically are saying the same thing, just in a different way and using different studies. The outdoors and keeping active is good for us and society as a whole. I have said this all before, so I am not going to go into too much depth. What I am going to say is that we all know changes are needed, and a constant reminder can have a negative effect on making those changes happen. We tune out when we feel as if we are being nagged. What can we do to make sure that positive changes do happen? I don’t have an answer that will work for everyone. Creativity is what is needed. That, along with a flexibility that can be adjusted for different people with different personalities and overall needs.

Instead of trying to drive the point of health home by a constant reminder and guilt-tripping, I think we need to put things through a different lens. We need to try looking at things differently. I say, let’s experiment, what is the worst that could happen?

Could my personal portable communicator, or smartphone, help me spend more time outdoors and be healthier?

It sounds like a contradiction. We seem to always be told to put away our electronics and disconnect. However, personal portable communicators, or smartphones, may help to keep us accountable for our actions. Technology may actually help to make us healthier. It does this by providing us with ways to track our actions, be reminded of our goals, and strive to get better at a certain task. Sometimes there is a twist in the story and the would be villain is not so bad after all.

So I want to be healthy and happy. What do I need to do? I should start by eating healthy. Ok, to do that, I need to avoid processed foods, fast food, foods with lots of sugar, red meat, some types of fish, and saturated fat. Well maybe I don’t need to avoid saturated fat if it comes from certain sources. Wait a minute, my diet should be low in carbs, high in protein, and vegetarian, no vegan, but I can have meat once a week and fish is ok. Is it? I can’t eat too much fish now because it is being overfished. Before I forget, I can treat myself to the occasional “junk food”. Is this going to cause me to lose weight? What if I want to gain weight? I am supposed to eat more meat now, and include superfoods (What is the effect of Kryptonite on these?). Should all of this be organic or local? It should be both, but if I need to choose local is better than organic for the planet, and organic is better for my body. Now I also need to make sure I drink lots of water and for best physical performance I should calculate how much I need based on a number of factors. Diuretics are bad, but coffee and tea are good. Ok, I have my diet figured out, I think. Oh, I can also drink alcohol because it will make me smarter. However, I can only drink so much. Red wine is the best, but other kinds of alcohol are good too. Isn’t alcohol also a diuretic? This one is for sure, I shouldn’t smoke and I should exercise regularly. I need to reduce the amount of time I spend sitting, take at least 5000 steps a day and exercise for at least 30 minutes. I also need to spend time relaxing and not doing anything. Now, to be happy I should have a bucket list, not compare myself to others, and have a job that is fulfilling and challenging. I can’t work too much though, but I should work until I am 67 years old. I should quit my current job and do something that I enjoy. No I shouldn’t. I enjoy what I do, mostly, and it allows me to do what I enjoy to do. I need a routine, or is it that I need to be spontaneous? Too much technology is bad, I need to disconnect, but it is also good to stay connected, to help reduce stress. I can also use it as a tool for work and learning. Now what I also need to do…

THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!! I’m going to just do what I enjoy: Go outside, live a balanced lifestyle and treat myself accordingly.

Trying to follow all of the studies that come out these days can cause us a great deal of extra stress and worry. They are also always changing and new ones are coming out every day. I can’t keep them straight and why should I try to? Life is more enjoyable when I just live with balance. April is stress awareness month, so do something you enjoy and don’t worry if you treat yourself occasionally. Life is too short to sweat the small stuff. Studies are not all bad. They give us insight into things we may have forgotten along the way. However, they are not to be relied on. I do know this for sure and have done my own study to prove this: The outdoors is good for me. How do I know? Going outside helps me relax, keeps me active and is enjoyable.

This weeks idea: Do your own study. Go outside, treat yourself and relax. See how it makes you feel. As with any study, write down your results and share them with others. This should be the only study that you follow (The following video has some pretty good advice too)!

Before I begin going into the topic of this post, I would like to straighten out a few details regarding the title. The plural form of ‘octopus’ is actually ‘octopuses’. It is the most common form and is the most widely accepted. ‘Octopi’ is objectionable in some cases and is not always listed as being a correct plural form. However, I do prefer the way this title rolls off the tongue, despite the possibility of it being incorrect. Enough of this rambling, now into the post…

Take a good look at the things around you. What do you see? Cars have 5-star safety ratings, we are trying to eliminate global terrorism, there are warning labels on almost every food, playgrounds are to be removed from some schools, that little bump in the sidewalk is painted yellow. There are so many things out there to try to minimize the risk that we are exposed to every day. Now imagine these things in nature. On your hike through the woods, there are fences on the sides of the trails to keep creatures out, roots and rocks are painted bright colours or removed completely, signs warn you of what might be unexpected around the next bend in the trail. It all sounds a little ridiculous, but that is what our society is moving towards. We try to minimize the risk that we are exposed to in almost every way. We are striving for perfection.

Looking at nature, we are going at all of this the wrong way. Adaptation by organisms, such as the octopus, carry no goal of perfection. Trying to eliminate risk in our lives is like trying to eliminate predation in nature. It is a bit of a ridiculous concept. The relationships that have developed in nature over the last millions of years come from adaptations to hostile interactions. They have created symbiotic relationships that work! The octopus is a good example. It has multiple solutions to deal with the problems that it is faced with. For the octopus, when there is trouble, there is no one right way to deal with it. The octopus expects the unexpected!

This exposure to risk has the possibility to be dangerous. However, it keeps us alive, makes us think for ourselves, helps us to deal with everyday problems and is what makes being human exciting. For all of us big kids, we grew up with this exposure to risk in our lives. I know that I occasionally got hurt, but that is how I learned about the world. It was all trial and error. I think that this exposure to natural risk has made me into a well-rounded individual. I feel I can make solid decisions in all aspect of my life. What will things be like without that exposure to natural spaces and risk? Striving to perfect our environment is taking away from a lot of the things that we all grew up with. Youth now have a lot less exposure to a lot of the things we remember about being a kid. I will give you a quote from a blog entry about how children should exercise. It has multiple meanings and we can all take learning from it:

“Kids do dangerous things as a rule. They ride skateboards and make jumps. They climb trees and fall from them – sometimes on purpose to “see what happens.” They play football, get in scuffles, and make hairpin turns at breakneck speeds while dribbling a ball (with either hands or feet). Sports are dangerous, sure, but so is just about anything you do involving your body and the laws of physics. Let them figure it out. You’ll be there if something goes wrong.”

I say to embrace risk in your life and let others do the same. Let us stop trying to perfect our world. It just cannot be done. Instead, let us all learn to live with the risks we are faced with. Everything from finances and work to exercise and play. Take from the octopus, and have multiple solutions to our problems. I like to embrace risk in my life. It is exciting, and is how nature has dealt with problems for millions of years.

Now for this week’s idea: Stop avoiding things that may seem a little dangerous, and do something ‘risky’! Remember to emulate octopi (or octopuses). Stop trying to eliminate risk in your life and learn to live with it. It will make things more exciting as well as making life easier. Risk cannot be eliminated and, in learning from one of the most well-adapted organisms on this planet, don’t try to.

Don’t forget to share your thoughts on how you live with risk in the comments section below!